1949 Chevy 3600......making it a daily driver!!

1949 Chevy 3600.

It has been in a family for at least 40 years. My Dad bought it for me 30 years ago and it has sat in a couple different barns or storage sheds since. I must be going through a midlife crisis at 38 years of age because I all of a sudden have a real urge to get this useable!!

Goals:

100% dependable daily driver for errands and picking up/ dropping off kids, etc.

100 mile trips at a comfortable speed is a must.

As stock as practical

Low









Supposedly it ran when it was parked, but time has erased alot of good info. I do know it is missing the stock 6V generator and fan belt.

More later!!

 

So we had issues pretty much as soon as the truck came off the trailer. The passenger side rear tire was not turning. A little investigation found the brake show material had fallen off the shoe.





After we got it rolled into place we pulled the plugs and turne the motor over by hand. Everything seemed fine. I was scared the motor would be stuc from years of sitting idle. The battery was shot, so I hooked up new battery and we attempted to spin the motor over. Despite our attemps we could not to get the motor to spin over with the starter. The starter was suspect and would need to come off.

The headlights did work though!!

 

The starter was pulled, cleaned up and benched tested. Despite it's age, it tested fine on the bench and cleaned up fine.





With the help of my 8 year old son Ryder, we started cleaning up the interior to see what we were up against. Mouse poop and rust......always abundant in old iron!!





The worst of the cancer is on the floor of the drivers side!!

 

Some place there is a really upset mouse. A 2-1/2 gallon bucket of corn above the headliner.....

 

Got the starter mounted back up and made sure the motor turned over with it. All good!!

I had a open Saturday, but I had to watch my son and a friend of his. Instead of trying to watch them and making numeous trips to the parts store trying to get this thing to run I chose to spend the day working on the exterior of the truck.

I had read a couple articles on surface rust removal using CLR and either scotchbrite or steel wool. I decided to give it a try. I started with the hood.



Unreal difference.......I proceeded to scuff the whole truck with the CLR and the green scotchbrite pads. Surface rust disapeared, and a nice satin finish remained.

After I scuffed the whole truck I washed it twice with simple green and water and a stiff brush, thoroughly rinsing!!

After that the whole truck recieved a healthy coat of Carnuba Wax.

 

It lives....after 30 years of being quiet it belched and coughed to life. Came to life with very little cranking.

Had a little drama when I found a pool of oil underneath. Turned out to be deteriated lines to and from external oil filter housing. Picked up some fittings at the parts store and a chunk of fuel line and patched that up.

Runs fairly strong and on all 6 cylinders but only when I feed it fuel. The fuel pump seems to not be working.

I do not know the condition of the inside of the fuel tank so I took the fitting apart below the tank and added a piece of fuel line into a gas can. I assumed the pump would pull from their.

I order a new fuel pump and a water pump as it is worn out an leaking horrible.

I am now in a dilema. My brakes do not work at all......no lever feel at all. My eventual plan (likely over the winter or early spring) is to put a new rear end and 1/2 ton front axle under this truck with updated brakes. That being said, I would like to get the brakes working at least enough to move this around easier and safer in my yard, loading it on a trailer, ect.

Any advice?

 

Welcome. Nice truck and great photos.
Short of re-building your entire hydraulic brake system you might find some shoes for the rear and use the parking brake.

 

That sounds like a workable plan.

Thanks!!

 

Welcome Coach! Nice truck! Save the corn, it'll make some nice corn squeezins! What you don't drink, you can use for fuel! I'm really impressed with the initial clean-up! It looks good to go! If you don't have one already, get a shop manual for your truck as it will be your bible. Take lots of pictures before, during and after each fix-up project. They come in handy if you have "CRS".

Again, welcome. Glad to have you aboard!

Ken

P.S. Here's a link to an online shop manual if you don't have a greasy, tattered hard copy! http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1948_51truck/index.htm

 

Awesome old honest truck there. this is almost the same story I had, but I just got the truck I just wanted to get it safe, reliable, and usable. Now some more top end say anything faster the 45mph would be nice, but that is for later.

Search for threads started by my user name, that will give you a lot of details about what I did. All of my knowledge comes from here and just doing the work.

https://talk.classicparts.com/search.php?searchid=458252


I did the entire fuel system, tank, lines, pump, rebuilt the carb. Next I did all the brakes, everything. Lines, just to be safe, wheel cylinders, drums, shoes, MC, everything. I had a friend in high school get in a fatal wreck due to brakes failing. There have also been guys on this site clean a brake line, and see pin hole leaks. Anyway off soap box...

But as Larry said since you are going to replace the rear end, then you may just want to rig it up to use the parking brake. Oh DONT throw away your old shoes, as they are NOT available and you have to get them relined, with new pad material.

But you may find that it is fairly cheap to go ahead and rework the factory brakes, that way you can drive it and take your time finding the proper rear running gear. Just a thought. As this is what I did and have been enjoying my truck now for years. I drive it 3-7 times a week. I live 1.5 miles from work,so its great.

I did have to abandon my split rims. But got some trailer rims that look so very close to stock. See my thread on the details on that. Got the tallest tires I could get without going to some really expensive HD tires

Awesome truck and great story. Your truck is just awesome, for a chevy I figured you need to catch on sooner or later Its no GMC, but it sure is a good looking truck

My son is 1.5 yrs old and just loves his "little blue truck" It is a blast to go for cruises with him and my wife. Great times.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. I appreciate it. I would consider myself handy, but my car mechanic experience has been limited oil changes are tire rotations!! I will be leaning on ya for some guidance!!

Tonight I installed a new fuel pump I purchased from the local Napa.



After I got it mounted up I blew compressed air through the fuel lines to verify they were clear. I then rigged up my temp fuel source and verified I had fuel at the pump. I buttoned up all the lines and turned it over until it started. Fired up relatively easy and idled for about a minute then died. It did this repeatedly.

I am not too concerned, I did not open up the carb at all, nor did I look at the points, plug, plug wires or the coil. All those issues will be addressed shortly.

I picked up a used 10SI alternator from a buddy so can start my 12v conversion asap.

You should have saw the look on my 8 year olds eyes when I fired it up from the cab......soo awesome!!

 

It's never too early to get a child or grandchild interested in old cars! Good on you for getting the young one interested! Looks like he's going to be a good helper and a great buffer when mama starts complaining about the time spent in the garage!

 

Hey, you found us! I have lots of tech articles here, search my user name, most start with "how to....." Also check out the How to assemble an AD at the top of the page, I tried to document each step so everyone can see how things go together.

I gave away a perfect, tight 8 lug front end off mine, I think it went for scrap as no one wanted either front or rear.

1/2 ton axles shouldn't be too hard to come up with....I can get you plenty, only they are in NC. Don't pay much for them as you will probably need to rebuild them before you drive on them.

You can start by swapping out the rear axle, 3/4 ton has a half open driveshaft. If you are wanting to go 6 lug, check out the newer Colorados, otherwise for a 5 lug chevy pattern check out around a 95 Impala SS rear, great fit and disc brakes, or a 4x4 S10. If you plan to do something like a Fatman M2 swap, you can go Ford rear and then match the front. I used to run a 90 Town car rear, now I have a 95 Tbird IRS. An Explorer rear should be a decent match also.

If you go upgread the brakes, get the adapter mount and then use a 67-76 Corvette manual master cylinder, run new brake lines

The 53, start to finish.....https://talk.classicparts.com/showthread.php?t=7672

 

He is a good kid who is starting to get at that age that he is an awesome help. He wants to learn which is great. I showed him how to install some new battery cable ends tonight, you can just see ther gears turning in his little head.

 

https://talk.classicparts.com/showthread.php?t=7677

A 50 chev build...


Where are you located?

 

Gotta keep em interested......first day of school....

 

Yea I found it. Thanks so much for the invite. Looks to be a ton of info, which I welcome openly!!

I will try and document as much as I can, so as to help the next guy!!

I am not to hung up on bolt pattern. For now I would like to go with a Sid's drop axle and a hwy geared rear end. Down the road it might get a IFS front suspension.....but it will be a couple years at least. Low as practical to use daily!!

Right now the name of the game is "Cheap".

No paint in the plan at all.

15 or 16 inch wheels and nice wide whites.

 

Jamestown, North Dakota!!

 

Awesome. How old?

 

Wyatt is 5.

Mya is 9....


Campy is now 7 mo.


I have heard from several people that the drop axle can cost as much as an IFS when all is said and done, and doesn't drive worth a damn. If you plan to do a M2, just do it.....it is well worth it. I am partial to Fatman, that is what I run.......hard.